Google founder warns of AI’s ‘sci-fi style sentience’ potential

Artificial intelligence is driving a “technology renaissance” but its evolution could lead to doomsday scenarios seen in science fiction, according to one of the co-founders of Google.

“In this sense, we are truly in a technology renaissance, an exciting time where we can see applications across nearly every segment of modern society.” Mr Brin referenced Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities in his letter, quoting the famous opening: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” The Russian-born billionaire related this to the paradoxical nature of AI, saying that the technology’s potential for good is offset by the harm that its development could bring.

Most notably, safety spans a wide range of concerns from the fears of sci-fi style sentience to the more near-term questions such as validating the performance of self-driving cars.” AI experts have warned of Alphabet’s development of artificial intelligence, which is spearheaded by its London-based subsidiary DeepMind.